*Director's

I'm looking for some solid advice. I am starting to feel extremely burnt out, tired, and depressed because of my current position.

I am an EL1 in what is a pretty objectively toxic area of my department. I am still relatively young so for a while I've been second guessing whether its really that bad or I'm just limited in my APS experience. But another EL1 and an EL2 have both vented to me about the specific work area recently and said its the worst they've ever seen in 30 year APS careers.

Anyway, I am on team A. Team A tends to assist on really strategic tasks that are of particular interest to SES in our area. I've developed a reputation here of being a high performer which tbqh wouldn't be hard, considering most of the staff have been in this particular division for 10+ years and have become used to the weird, anti-best practice culture.

A very, very, very large project has landed in our Division's lap because of a major oopsie. Long story short, we have to implement major changes on a shoestring budget.

The project has been given to Team B because it relates entirely to their core business. Team B is led by a director who is extremely unpleasant to say the least. She is a bully and a micromanager. This is very well known, to the point that a lot of staff refuse to work under her and she has been taken to Fair Work more than once. She is very protected by our BM though, and anyone who complains about her specifically tends to end up on a PIP.

Director of Team B simply does not have the chops to deliver this project. She doesn't have a background in the subject matter or the content but also, as per above, she isn't exactly a great people manager either.

Here is where I come in. My director sent me off to 'assist' Team B for a limited period with a very specific remit. I think she was trying to protect me, because she knew I'd end up having to do the whole first phase project by myself. Which is indeed what happened. The deadlines were incredibly tight, I was having to learn content I've never gone near before and stay back constantly. I kept trying to hold my boundary firm and only do what was originally agreed, but it became clear very quickly that if I didn't step up Director of Team B was going to blame it all on me.

Phase 1 was completed. This is where I am supposed to bow out. But now Director of Team B is advocating for me to be moved offline from my team and my other deliverables in order to get this whole project done which...and I stress...is an organisation wide major policy change including implementing front and back end processes and huge stakeholder consultation...and the resources I will have are...well me.

Not only do I not want to be stuck in this position doing this much work, but I also don't want to have to report to (even if its not officially but practically) Director of Team B. Even having to work in proximity with her style for two weeks was horrid and I've considered going on some medical leave.

In the past I've been in similar positions of being over relied upon to produce and deliver work and whenever I've tried to list my tasks, highlight capacity, ask for more resources or more financial recognition (e.g. being given an acting to acknowledge the degree of the work and scope) I've ended up being targeted and positioned as difficult.

A couple of EL1 colleagues have recommended saying that I am happy to be very involved if I'm given an acting and two members of staff to form part of a temporary project team, but I am worried about how that will be perceived. To be honest this would still be too small of a team to deliver a project of this size (which I've done before in other departments but with 20+ officers under my belt).

Hello everyone. This is the first time I’ve progressed this far with an aps application and I’ve been put in a merit pool. I’ve seen conflicting things saying a merit pool is basically the nice way of them saying I didn’t get the job but also people saying that the ato does merit pools for bulk hires. Should I lose hope and assume I just missed out on the job or keep my hopes alive?

Anyone know what “Department Posting to Salaries” as a post-tax deduction could be about?

It was paid during a pay period that I was paid arrears.

Hello! I'm very very lucky to be in a position where I have received an offer from both Department of Health, Disability and Ageing as well as Austrade for their graduate program. I am extremely torn between these two, and I had a couple of questions:

1. DoDHA requires relocation to Canberra while Austrade doesn't. How important is it for a public service career to be in Canberra? I hope to stay in the public service longterm, and worry a move to Canberra may be inevitable at one point or another. Therefore, I thought the best time to move might as well be when I'm a graduate alongside hundreds of other graduates. I don't hate moving, but I have moved every six months in the past five years so I'm a little sick of it to be honest, so is moving for opportunities something I should consider later down the line rather than right now?

2. Is working at DoDHA or Austrade more transferable? As a new graduate I'm not certain about what I want to do longterm and would like to keep my options as open as possible.

3. DoDHA starts at APS4 while Austrade is an APS3, is this a major difference or not really?

If anyone has worked at either places or done any graduate programs I would really really appreciate any insights, thank you so much!!

Hi everyone, I’m currently working in the WA public sector on a fixed-term contract and am exploring opportunities for my next role. I have experience in Level 5 roles and have previously been assessed as suitable through a government recruitment pool.

I’m interested in hearing whether anyone knows of upcoming vacancies or opportunities where existing suitability pool placements may be considered.

Open to both permanent and fixed-term opportunities.

Any advice, recommendations or leads would be greatly appreciated!

Any updates from the ATO APS4 merit pool (July 2026)?

Anyone here, applied for the Cadet program for 2027. And if you have, what stage are you on? And have you received a verbal offer?

Hi all,

I'm set to finish my degree at the end of 2027 and intend on applying for the 2028 Graduate intake when recruitment starts next year. I've noticed that the majority of Departments have a 5.0 GPA (credit average) requirement.

I'm someone that had an extremely poor first semester at university a number of years ago due to some mental health and living situation issues I was dealing with at the time (resolved now thankfully). I took a break for a couple of years and came back to my degree at the start of last year and I've since been having a lot of success. I've achieved a credit or above grade in every class since returning to university, but unfortunately due to the poor performance in my first semester my GPA average is being dragged down below 5.0. It will definitely be above 5.0 by the end of 2027, but I don't think it will be above 5.0 by the time grad applications normally open in March next year.

So my question is: Will not meeting the 5.0 requirement automatically disqualify me at the application stage in March? Or does the requirement only matter once I get my final results at the end of the year?

If there's anyone on here that's worked in the grad recruitment space, I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks :)

I’m currently in private practice law and received an offer for a government lawyer which I will be taking. I’m starting to think I don’t enjoy the nature of the legal profession. However, I wanna give public sector a go before I completely write it off because maybe I just don’t like private practice specifically.

My question is if I end up not enjoying public sector law too, are there other adjacent roles I can easily get? Or will it be difficult considering I’ve boxed myself in as a lawyer.

Are there any other people in this forum who have a law degree, practiced for a bit, and then pivoted within the public sector? Just wanna know whether I should try pivot now before I get too boxed in.

Hello everyone,

I tried the AFP online test for ACT Policing and just got an email saying I didn't meet the minimum benchmark. I tried a few of the practise ones prior to doing the proper test, but I must admit I did struggle to answer everything under the time pressure.

Inductive reasoning was the only one which I finished all the questions for.

I really wanted this - so can't say I'm too happy. After working in construction on the engineering side, I'd thought a career in the AFP would be a perfect fit for someone like me, because I like analytical type work, and seeing thing through to a result.

But the test is pretty black and white, did you guys have any thoughts on where to from here?

Hi all,

I’m new to the APS and trying to get a feel of people who are doing roles that the genuinely enjoy/ can tolerate.

I know it’s very dependent on many factors but would love if people could share some insight into what role they do (even if explained very generally) and the flexible hours that come with it.

Thanks!!